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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Can Lustration Be Saved in Ukraine?
The Ministry of Justice compiled a registry of cases in which authorities sabotaged lustration. Activists say there is already a "counterrevolution."
Sabotage by authorities of the implementation of the law "On Cleansing of Power" has become widespread in Ukraine, Tetyana Kozachenko, director of the lustration department at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, said at a press conference in Kyiv on 3 September. She cited the example of appointing Lyudmyla Demchenko as head of the Main Department of the State Fiscal Service of Kyiv; since the summer of 2013 she had held the post of deputy head of the DFS in the Pecherskyi district. "This is a person who, by law, is one hundred percent subject to the ban on appointment to leadership positions," Kozachenko said.
Another sad example, the ministry representative said, was the appointment of Oleh Valendyuk as acting prosecutor of the city of Kyiv. Although a court decision has already been issued in his favor, by the criteria of the law "On Cleansing of Power" he has no right to hold this post, Kozachenko explained. According to her, the Ministry of Justice compiled a registry of cases in which authorities sabotaged lustration. "We have compiled, effectively, registries that we use to make inquiries, we are now initiating court cases and preparing cases, including on violations that require criminal proceedings," Kozachenko said.
"There is no 'filter between the public and the state' in Ukraine," said Viktor Romanyiuk, a member of the inter-factional parliamentary group "Deputy Control," naming this as a reason for the sabotage of lustration. He noted that in civilized countries this filter is the courts. "But in Ukraine we have encountered the mass rehabilitation of criminals in robes and we have in the courts, the High Council of Justice, and the Constitutional Court the same people who issued unjust decisions during Yanukovych’s time and who are unworthy—people who either bought their positions or sat in chairs thanks to the patronage of state officials," Romanyiuk said.
Sabotage or counterrevolution?
The most radical assessment of the situation was given by Vitaliy Kupriy, deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on legislative support of law enforcement activities. He said that presidential power stands at the head of the system resisting lustration. "All these measures to avoid lustration—by issuing certificates to ATO participants, temporarily demoting people with subsequent appointment to other positions, as well as reinstating lustrated officials through the courts—are all organized through the Presidential Administration," Kupriy said.
As evidence, in an interview with DW the deputy cited the testimony of Anton Chernushenko, the accused head of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, who said that Oleksii Filatov, deputy head of the Presidential Administration for the court system, forced him to issue prearranged unjust decisions. "Now, according to statements by former SBU head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, I am preparing a request for a package of documents regarding Poroshenko’s offshore companies, who together with his team launders about 500 thousand dollars a day and hides them outside Ukraine. Such 'profits' can only be made by non-lustrated bribing officials in power," the deputy insisted.
Oleksandra Dirk, chair of the Public Lustration Committee council, told DW that up to ten schemes are known that are used to evade lustration. "All this happens with the full support, consent, and desire of the highest leadership of the country. The mass return to posts of previously lustrated officials forces one to speak no longer of sabotage but of a counterrevolution," the civic activist said.
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Dirk said the registry of lustration violations was compiled by the Ministry of Justice in partnership with and with the help of the Public Lustration Committee. This document, Dirk believes, demonstrates who should be removed from state power under the lustration procedure. "It is necessary to involve people as much as possible in monitoring the implementation of the law on cleansing power," the activist said. Tetyana Kozachenko and the members of parliament present at the event also believe that in the absence of effective judiciary, publicizing facts of lustration sabotage is the only way to put pressure on the authorities.
Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko said to journalists on 3 September that he expects the Verkhovna Rada to soon submit amendments to the law "On Cleansing of Power." According to the minister, that day there had been a meeting of Council of Europe experts with deputies who are members of the working group that participated in drafting the law. And they agreed during the current parliamentary session to "vote on the changes that were approved by the Venice Commission."
dw.com
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Чи можна в Україні врятувати люстрацію". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
